The present invention pertains to the treatment of textiles and fabrics and finishing agents for use therein, either in the finishing of the original textile or in after-treatments of the textile during dry cleaning and similar operations.
The terms finishing agents and finishing treatments that are referred to herein are to be understood to pertain to treatments and agents which improve the hand and fullness of textiles or fabrics -- fullness in this sense referring to the bulk or thickness of the fabric -- as well as improved wrinkle recovery and permanence of both the pressed creases and the smoothness of the fabric, thereby also affecting its flexibility and stiffness. Dependent upon the kind of treating agent, each of these characteristics is thereby affected to a smaller or greater degree by the finishing agents and processes that are disclosed in this application.
Textiles or fabrics for clothing are now normally treated when made with finishing agents in order to improve the hand and wrinkle recovery of the garment made therefrom. Dependent upon the quality of the fabric, portions of the finishing agent with which the garment has been treated are lost to a greater or lesser degree, thereby affecting the serviceability or durability of the garment. During dry cleaning of clothing, solvent-soluble textile finishing agents, and if the cleaning is effected upon addition of water, also water-soluble finishing are completely or partially removed from such garments. As a result of such dry-cleaning treatments, the hand and fullness of the garment are impaired and its wrinkle recovery and permanence of the finishing effect are decreased. In order to prevent such deterioration of the fabric as a result of dry cleaning, the textile must be retreated after the dry-cleaning operation with a finishing agent. As a result of such after-treatment of the garment, the subsequent pressing operation is simplified or an increase in the efficiency of the steam-pressing apparatus is achieved, and the garment is rendered less sensitive to damage by mechanical handling during transport.
Solutions of natural or synthetic resins, combinations of such resins, mixtures of such resins and waxes or long-chain aliphatic hydrocarbons in organic solvents were heretofore used as finishing agents for this purpose. Normally these finishing agents were applied to the textile after the dry-cleaning operation in a dip and rotate process or in the form of a spray. As an expedient, the finishing agent has recently been frequently added to the dry-cleaning bath. This was possible because almost all of the presently suitable finishing agents that were used for this purpose were filterable.
However, two limitations of this procedure could heretofore not be overcome or obviated. These limitations are as follows:
1. The colloidal chemistry of the ingredients of the finishing agent causes them to behave like soil and to use up surfactant molecules. The detergent action of the dry-cleaning bath is thus reduced and the appearance of graying is promoted.
2. Since the detergent action of organic solids is substantially increased by the addition of water thereto, the emulsifying behavior of detergents in the bath and their water-solubilizing power for the water dispersed therein is of decisive significance. On account of the hydrophobic nature of the finishing agents, the dispersion of the water in the bath is affected.
Detergents are usually adjusted to bring about, in pure dry-cleaning solvents, optimal conditions for the solubilization and emulsification of the water. Since these properties of detergents are affected by the presence of the finishing agents in the dry-cleaning bath, shrinkage and felting of the garments and textiles that are cleaned may occur, as described by Hasenclever and Naumann under the title "Chemischreinigung" in Technical Section T76 of the "Handbucher fur Textilingenieure und Textilpraktiker," published by Dr. Spohr-Verlag, Stuttgart, German Federal Republic.